General: Perennial herb from a creeping rhizome; stems ascending or erect, 10-80 cm tall, single or branched, 4-angled, hairy, some of the hairs pointed downward on the angles; smells minty.
Leaves: Opposite, usually elliptic, vary from lanceolate to nearly circular, 2-8 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, more or less hairy, shallowly round- to sharp-toothed, tips pointed, bases tapered or rounded; short-stalked.
Flowers: Inflorescence of many-flowered, separated, axillary clusters; bracts leaf-like, the upper reduced somewhat but always longer than flowers; corollas tubular, light purple, 4-7 mm long, 4-lobed, the lobes nearly alike; calyces bell-shaped, 2-3 mm long, hairy, the teeth short, slightly longer than wide, triangular, blunt to sharp-pointed.
Wet marshes, meadows, thickets, and stream and lake margins in the lowland and montane zones; common throughout BC; circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to DE, MO and CA; Eurasia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
